No. I'm not a zombie.

Sayid gets some complementary electrolysis and a purple nurple from Dogen. Jack’s pill-popping habit goes to extremes. Dr. Ethan Rom Goodspeed does obstetrics right this time. The new flight clearly crossed the International Month Line. Claire takes the place of Rousseau – I claim dibs on naming her Clousseau!

LOST 6x03: What Kate Does

This isn’t my favorite episode, but it was a solid episode where we not only see how the two realities are diverging more, but also learning more about just how different they are. We learn nothing about what's going on with UnLocke, Richard and crew. More to follow on them next week, according to the previews.

What did you think? Comment below with thoughts, questions, recipes or social security numbers.

2007 On the island

Sayid awakens in the Temple, and Lennon and Dogen are genuinely concerned. Sawyer plans his escape, bitter than an Iraqi torturer gets a second chance, while Juliet’s in the ground.

Miles to Jack: “As you can see, Hugo here has assumed a leadership position, so that’s pretty great.” Sayid thanks Jack for saving his life, which Jack denies. They ask Sayid to come with them for a few questions alone.

Nerd alert: This was the same thing they were “asking” of Jack just before Sayid woke up. Was he poised to be tortured until Sayid awoke? Did they think Jack was “infected”? (Thanks Phil)

In an un-LOST-like turn of events, Jack is suddenly filled with questions – “Who are you? Why are you holding us here?...Something tells me you’re not going to tell us anything.” (No answers, of course.) They try to subdue Jack, and Sawyer breaks it up with a gunshot in the air. Dogen begs him to stay as he exits the Temple, and tells them not to come after him. And yet Kate goes following after him as always.

Dogen blows a black powder all over Sayid (the ash to keep in the smoke monster?) and shocks him, then uses a red hot poker on his skin (trying to see if the monster is strong enough to come out yet?). Lennon says that Sayid passed the test, but then says to Dogen, “I just lied to him, didn’t I?”. “Yes.”

Nerd alert: Giving Sayid electric shocks was the same thing that Rousseau did to him when she held him captive in the jungle. Clearly now, she was checking for “infection” then. So it appears they are looking for Smokey in Sayid. (Smayid?)

Kate and Jin are walking with two Others. One of them, Aldo, tells her that they’re concerned about the black smoke pillar. Jin asks if Ajira 316 that landed, and the 2^nd Other, Justin, almost gives up that it had. Kate almost trips up a trap that Jin said was one of Rousseau’s. Justin said that she’s been dead for years. Aldo reminds her that she cold cocked him when she escaped from the polar bear cages several years ago – and she does the same to him again, and then trips up the trap and knocks Justin out. She tells Jin that she’s escaping.

Sayid’s brought out from Dogen’s torture room, and Jack goes back to see him. They don’t try to stop him. They tell Jack that Sayid is infected and give Jack a pill to give him. They say that they weren’t torturing Sayid, but diagnosing him, and that he needs to take the pill willingly. If he does so, he’ll redeem himself from getting Sayid shot.

Question: Did they want Jack to give him the pill because they can’t kill him – is Jack their loophole to kill the smoke monster?

Question: What was in the pill? Was it the black ash?

Question: Does Dogen fear technology like Jacob did in the cabin? He was using a typewriter and appeared to have an abacus on his desk.

Miles asks Sayid, “So, nothing?...there wasn’t anything? No white light?...no dead relatives?” The only thing he remembers was being shot. Hurley asks if he was a zombie. “No. I am not a zombie.”

Question: Moment of levity, or is Sayid a “zombie”? Miles definitely appears concerned, and Dogen believes he’s been infected. Or is it just a nod to the fans who’ve been expecting a “zombie season” since a script page was leaked in the first season with a reference to a zombie Vincent, the dog.?

Jack shows Sayid the pill. But Sayid says he won’t take it unless Jack thinks its safe. Jack tells him that he didn’t have anything to do with saving him and he trusts Jack.

Kate tells Jin that she’s not actually looking for Sawyer, but that she’s trying to escape. (coughbullshitcough) He asks who she cares about her. Kate finds Sawyer at the house he and Juliet had lived in and he’s dug out a shoebox with an engagement ring in it. Kate starts to walk away, realizing that he had actually been in love with Juliet.

On the dock Kate tries to take blame for Juliet’s death for bringing them back to the island from the sub. But Sawyer takes the full blame as he throws the ring into the lagoon. Kate realizes she’s been a fool to think he’d pined over her all those years.

Dogen tells Jack that he doesn’t speak English because he has to remain separate from the people he’s in charge of – that it makes it easier when they don’t like the decisions he makes for them Dogen says he was brought to the island, like everybody else. He tries to get Jack to trust him to give Sayid the pill, and it doesn’t work. Instead, Jack takes the pill himself. Dogen goes medieval on him to get him to spit it out. And he tells Jack that the pill was poison.

Question: Was there the protective ash in the capsule? If not, what was the medication in there?

Question: What was the significance of the baseball Dogen was bouncing? Was it related to the Red Sox winning the World Series in 2004 – a game that Ben had made a point of referencing to Jack when he was being held captive? Reference to Christian Shephard, big Sox fan?

Dogen gives Jack tea and tells him that they think Sayid has been “claimed” with a darkness that will overtake him. And he knows this because it happened to Jack’s sister. (Jack’s tears almost started flowing again.)

Jin encounters Justin and the Aldo, and tries to run, but gets caught in a bear trap. Just then, the Others are shot – by Claire looking raggedy and a mess. And Jin and Claire look at each other with recognition.

Question: So has Claire literally replaced Rousseau? (Clousseau?!) She is on the lamb from the Others, living in isolation, setting up traps on the island. She was also pregnant when she arrived on the island, successfully delivered her baby, and had her baby taken from her.

Random question: All of a sudden, the birds are chirping like mad on the island. But they never did after the crash of 815. It was typically almost bird-less. Why? There was speculation that Walt had something to do with the lack of birds, but is this the case?

2004 Los Angeles

Claire’s taxi driver nearly runs over Arzt. The driver runs out of the car, and Kate hops behind the wheel and takes off, leaving Claire behind, but keeping her purse and suitcase.

Kate gives a mechanic $200 to get off her cuffs and she changes into Claire’s clothes. She finds the photo of Claire pregnant in the bag, along with a large stuffed killer whale doll.

Kate finds Claire – still standing where she was dropped off, I guess? – and Claire says that she was on her way to Langdon Street in Brentwood to find the adoptive parents, who didn’t show up at the airport to pick her up.

Claire has a full-on case of the Stockholm Syndrome and is now BFF with Katie. They arrive at the Baskums’ house (the couple who were adopting Claire’s baby), and Mrs. Baskum tells her that her husband has left her. She meant to call Claire to, I guess, say that she can’t go through with the adoption any longer.

Questions: What forces were working to split the Baskums up? And what made Claire go into labor at that very moment?

They arrive at the hospital – Angel of Mercy – and her doctor is Ethan Goodspeed, aka Ethan Rom! He’s examining her when the fetal monitor flatlines, but he finds a heartbeat again after she yells his future name, Aaron. Turned out that the monitor was in the wrong place. She decides not to deliver early, and they try to slow her down with various drugs.

A Detective Rasmussen shows up looking for a Joan Hart (the name Kate used when signing in to the hospital – a reference to the actress Melissa Joan Hart, “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”?) and Claire protects her by saying she was just a cab driver. She offers Kate her credit card before she leaves.

Nerd alert: the date on the sonogram printout was 10/22/04. The date of the original Flight 815 was 9/22/04. So this is a full month later. How is that possible that all of these folks’ timelines were pushed a full month? This probably wasn’t even Flight 815. The plane itself was different (rows of 3-4-3 vs. 2-3-2), none of our 815ers were sitting in rows with the numbers, etc.

Nerd alert: The letters directly under the fetus’ image were: WRKSHT. The corresponding numbers to those letters in the alphabet are 23-18-11-19-8-20

Drop some comments below. Namaste.

- Sean Salo